Nine ways to write for the web

Emily Hill, founder of web writing company Write My Site (www.writemysite.co.uk), shares the secrets of successful web copy.

It’s no use having a beautiful website with lots of traffic unless it’s generating sales. Traffic gives you visitors; communicative text gives you customers. You must always be talking to the people who arrive at your website and telling them why you’ve got what they need, because very few products or services sell themselves. Here are nine ways to gain customers through your website:

1) Think about the purpose of your pages
Visitors can arrive anywhere on your site: the Home page, the About Us page, the FAQ page. Make sure that wherever they land, they are given reasons to navigate the rest of the site. You should be leaving ‘bait’ on each page to draw the visitor in the direction you want them to go: i.e. the payment or contact page. If the latter, ensure your ‘Contact Us’ page is welcoming and provides proper contact details – not just a web form! If you have an online payment page, make sure you stress this is secure, and will be processed immediately.

2) Weave in your keywords
If there’s one thing that really matters in terms of getting your website found in the search engines by your customer base, it’s relevant content. Find out what your target customers are searching for and thread those keywords into the text of your pages. Remember to write your keywords into your meta tags as well.

3) Don’t take all day
Web pages should not read like essays. Visitors won’t stick around to read reams and reams of descriptive text. Selling on the web is not the same as direct mail, where long text can sometimes work. Short, snappy text is needed – many people casually browse the net and if you want to hook these visitors in, you need to do it quickly.

4) Remember where you are
You’re on the Internet. How do expect people will find you? A lot of your potential customers are going to be looking for your products or services by typing particular words into the search engines. Make sure those words are included in your copy!

5) Assume web users are lazy
Don’t put anything on the site that makes the visitor do any work. Don’t make anyone read something twice to make sense of it, or study a table of calculations to work out why you offer the best value. Just write it down in plain English.

6) Hammer home your key selling point
What’s different about you and why is that good? Moreover, why should the customer buy from you as a result? Work out what your key selling point is and emphasize it throughout – and it’s not always based on cost. If you’re selling rock climbing safety equipment, for example, your buyers will be more concerned with its effectiveness than its price, so this is what your writing should emphasise.

7) Work with your design
Make sure the design and writing style complement each other, and that the layout is constructed so you can communicate with customers to maximum effect. It should be easy to navigate from one piece of information to the next. Make sure you have all the links in place that are necessary for seamless navigation.

8) Don’t mince your words
The most important thing about the style in which you write is to sound sincere. Avoid all of the following: cliches; corporate speak; excessive punctuation; fancy words; and long sentences.

9) It’s all about the customer
Above all, make sure your web content is targeted and relevant. Your website is not a platform for you to hold forth about every aspect of your business, because however fascinating you may find it, your customers won’t. They just want to know what’s in it for them.

By Emily Hill
www.writemysite.co.uk